My test alternative for quadratic functions

So, after seeing what was decided for projects...I decided to branch out and do things a little differently.  I had found some project ideas awhile back on Pinterest that I have been waiting for the time to try.  It came!!! :D

Here are the links to these projects I found:

• Quadratic Angry Birds
• Complex Numbers story book

Both came from the same blogger.  She had a warm up activity she found on teacherspayteachers.  I used it the same way and found it to be a great formative assessment piece as I walked around the room listening to the students discuss and giving extension questions.  Here is the link for the activity:  COMIC

In my crazy head, I decided to try both of them and another I created.  I wanted to try these out with the other teachers this year, but decided to be the guinea pig to show how it can work.  The students had the option of project to work and/or partners to work with on their project.  The Angry Birds and Complex story book took longer than expected, but they were worth the time spent.  The students went into it with full force and gusto.  As I showed the other teachers some of the finished products, they were excited and were definitely open to try it next year.  Score!!!

I was talking to our campus instructional coach, showing some of the projects and bouncing ideas, She gave me a great idea that should help with the time factor.  Plan the lessons/unit with the project given and explained first.  Their practice and learning will be on completing the project as I flip the class into so many mini-lessons throughout the time.  This will give the time they need, and I can focus the instruction through the end product of the project.    

Why oh why do I have these ideas last minute??

This has been such a crazy week.  From tons of students re-testing and being displaced and floating, I am surprised I have any hair left.  I disappointed my students by our continued work in practicing factoring towards solving quadratics. :-) "Why yes...I DO have work for us..."

In interest of looking at the flow of my lessons differently, it has been interesting,  With our Algebra 2 team, we have always talked about properties of parabolas, refresh factoring separately, then start talking about solving quadratics with the factoring.  I have tried to keep the emphasis throughout the entire unit on the critical points on the parabola and ways we can find them.  I have been working heavily with multiple representations and factoring in context of solutions as x-intercepts.  

I know for many, this is a no brainer. But looking at how we were teaching and the disconnect between the major ideas we try to weave in isolation.

So, today I started with this question:  If the solutions of my parabola are 3 and -2, what is the equation?  Of course this was to tie in applying what we had been learning upto now,  We discussed how we can take the factoring and solving ideas to re-create the equation.  How does the graph look?  What is the minimum value?  

The activity that facilitated the discussion I had was this:  each group of students were given a problem on a quadratic (either an equation, a description of the solutions, or a table) and were asked to show the solutions and vertex from the equation, a table where they were to show the vertex and solutions (labeled), and the graph with the pertinent information.   They were to show the work on grid poster paper.  So far, it looks promising.  

My goal is to keep all of this tied together and not about one representation without the others.  I am trying to look at how to teach the skills with the context of why we need it.  Maybe this might not seem like much...it is just what is coming from the mind of a quarky math teacher,  :D

5364 Course Reflect 5

Course reflection week 5

Wrapping up this week, I have read lots through these five weeks that reaffirms ideas I have and am excited about using in my classroom.  We know that technology for social media, news, information, etc are always updated instantaneously.  The use of technology is a powerful tool in our classes.  With proper guidance, students are able to readily check their progress and receive instant feedback.  It is a great way for assessing formatively.  Previous, my students would have to wait a few days until I finally ran through all the papers to grade.  I am currently using the Flubaroo script on Google Drive spreadsheet to grade quizzes and tests.  In a few minutes it will grade and email each student results.  The results are shown question by question if they got it correct or wrong.  From this point, students are able to come in and work on correcting and discuss where they went wrong and receive further needed instruction.  

Our students also have access to the most current and relevant information to the curriculum and concepts we teach them.  By allowing them time to discover, process, and apply knowledge they find and handle, it helps develop problem solving tools.  They make connections from the information learned to ways they will need to apply it.  We are limited only by our own fears and insecurities about technology.

EDLD 5364 Course Reflect 4

Week 4 Course Reflection

This week's readings were about providing meaningful professional development to teachers on technology and collaborative learning for students.  Collaborative learning has been a hot topic in education for many years.  Based on the readings, we need to be very purposeful and meaningful with this type of learning.  Students in groups do not make it collaborative learning.  You need to create the learning where every student in the group has some skin in the game...they all depend on each other for success.  To truly accomplish this environment, the teacher will need to plan it out with roles placed for each member.  

Again, I loved how the Web 2.0 book put traditional professional developments as "spray and pray."  One thing I had not thought about with a PD is to actually incorporate the technology you are wanting teachers to learn and incorporate.  Incorporating the tools into the teaching of teachers is a great idea.  You can be right along with them, coaching them with other teachers and work collaboratively to learn and create ideas and lessons where you are able to integrate said technology.  How powerful would that be? 

EDLD 5364 course reflect 3

Week 3 course reflection

This week has been all about the UDL and eBook from cast.com.  From what I have found, the UDL is the same as our ever-beloved 5E lesson model.  The difference is all in the framework the UDL presents.  It captures not only the "what" and how" of learning, but also the "why."  It's purpose is to effectively provide the multiple avenues for students learn within contexts that are interesting and familiar to them and reach achievement.  

The eBook provides another avenue to teach.  With the ability to bring in pictures, audio, and writing, you can provide your students with another way to receive content, instructions, etc.  The possibilities are only limited by the teacher's creativity.  It is better than a video in this one aspect:  It allows the students to go their pace even better.  They don't have to stop or pause it get the information.  It is on the page. It has a text-to-speech function that is great for those students who need that as an intervention.  If they need to hear the audio part again, they do not have to guess where to go like a video.  It should be a quick replay on that page.  It gives the students more control over their learning. 

EDLD 5364 web reflection 2

Week 2 reflection

My group had a question about how to plan the lessons.  We were confused about what each lesson from each member needed to look.  Our group discussed using a math lesson for me to create and tie it to their space lesson.  After listening to the web conference, it was clear.  We will do the same lesson, but differentiate it to the group of students each us has been assigned.  My group is the general education group with varying abilities.  Since I have not taught 6th science and this lesson on meteorites, asteroids, and comets, I will be researching and asking my other group mates with materials they have used to become familiar.  It will be interesting to create a lesson outside of my expertise.  :)

EDLD 5364 course reflect 2

Week 2 course reflection

This week provided some interesting ideas and thoughts as I read and watched the videos assigned.  Goal setting is crucial to students' learning process.  It gives them a clearly defined target to reach and knowledge of what can be expected as an outcome.  As teachers we usually put an objective on our board and may even show and/or explain it to our students.  I think it is more of a compliance issue than a learning tool.  I know I have been guilty of this.  I want to look through my lessons this week to find where I can truly use this goal setting technique in my lessons.  I will try out a survey to see what they know about our next unit and post on my Google + page and website.  

The article I read on Michael Page's research was really eye opening.  What caught my eye was the impact technology usage had on Mathematics achievement.  The more I read, the more I felt vindicated on my passion to truly integrate the technology into my classroom despite the other colleagues who would tell me how much time it wastes.  I actually just emailed this article to my Principal and Assistant Principal over technology.  This article is very relevant to my school.  Our campus has a large group of low socioeconomic group of students.  We have just over 95% of our students on free or reduced lunch.  Granted this study was in elementary schools, but I think this can carry into the high school level.  

EDLD 5364 course reflect 1

Week 1 course reflection

This week's readings were interesting and gave lots to think about.  The only theory I could not mesh into my brain was the cyborg theory.  The video alone gave me nightmares.  Just the thought of surgical procedures or talking about them tends to shut me down.  

However, I did find the Constructivism and Connectivism theories interesting.  With Constructivism, the learner makes new knowledge from new information attached to prior knowledge perceived as similar.  In the video, they discuss this theory as being subjective: No one will hear or process the information in the same way.  I agree with this theory.  How can we expect any one individual to receive or even perceive information the same way or give the same conclusion.  As individuals that is impossible.  How we process depends on our perceptions.  It is like the question, "Is the glass half full or half empty?" 

Connectivism is equally as intriguing to me.  It proposes knowledge gained as connections made internally AND externally.  The external part is the social networks we create to discuss, study, and learn together.  What I like about this is the social interaction that is involved.  If you think about it, it does make sense.  How do we learn?  It isn't only from a learning environment but also through social circles.  With our society and technology intertwined, the way information is distributed from one network to another, it is how you can stay current with new, relevant information.  My most current information learned has not been in a traditional, educational setting, but with my networks of people and groups I associate with on a daily basis.  

Each theory has equal merit for me.  The key is to allow our students to make those new learning possible in meaningful, deeper ways and with the networking and technology possible. 

EDLD 5364 web reflection 1

Week 1 reflection:

I have to be honest, I probably almost had an anxiety attack when I looked at the project initially.  After watching the web conference, I was relieved when Dr. Sanders and Dr. Cummings allowed us to work in groups again.  Even though I know I am able to figure out what I should be doing, a group allows for a better product.  I loved my group in the last two projects.  They had such great ideas that I haven't even considered.  It made the project enjoyable.  
I understand the premise for the project, but it feels like a daunting task.  I liken it to working with most of my colleagues at my school.  Many of them have no skills in technology and are resistant to anything I have brought as ideas.  I think this will give me some ideas how to approach and coach colleagues in this same boat as the scenario.  

Reflection for EDLD 5366

After been in this program thus far, I hold my passion for technology use into the classroom to be a vital part of education.  I have been one of the few people on campus to be receptive to using technology in the classroom.  I understand the amazing potential the students had at a moment’s notice.  I think I have felt I have been on the right track.  It is difficult to be a lone wolf, knowing how we can explore options for best practices with technology.  As I currently talk with a few of my colleagues and administrators, they are slowing warming up to the idea of technology’s effectiveness.  We see our students become engrossed into their devices daily.  Why not tap into that captive attention for curriculum?  

Andrew Churches published an article in 2008 discussing Bloom’s Taxonomy in a new way.  (Churches, 2008)  I was really excited to see how the technology skills were incorporated into the Bloom’s Taxonomy.  I was very excited how some of the things we may do as teachers with our students (blogging, online responses and critiques to other students) were making it into the HOTS level.  So often, we find it difficult to create a lesson where we can easily incorporate the HOTS levels.  Some subjects have a more difficult time than others.  I began sharing this article with my colleagues and administrators.  

From the Horizons Report, a few of the technologies projected to infiltrate education are already here from my view point. Mobile devices and apps and tablets are enormous with the students.  (2012) I see many students bringing in tablets to use.  I have begun to apply what I have been learning about different technologies in my classroom, trying to show other teachers ways to implement the technology.  I really want to demonstrate and mentor my colleagues into stepping towards technology for education.  

Citations:

Johnson, L., Adams, S., and Cummins, M. (2012). Horizon Report: 2012 K-12 Edition. Retrieved from     

     https://luonline.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/pid-1026609-dt-content-rid-

     7021990_1/courses/EDLD_5362_ENA_2013_90_AP2/2012-horizon-report-K12.pdf

Churches, A. (2007, April). Bloom's digital taxonomy. Retrieved from 

     http://www.techlearning.com/article/8670

"My personal story" reflection

This assignment was interesting.  I used powtoons.com to create my video this week.  The challenge of this program was to time my voice recording with the video.  It was not as simple as I first thought.  The first thing was to script out what I wanted.  That proved the most difficult.  Given only 2 minutes, what was I to show about my life?  What was interesting about my life?  I combed my computer and normal places for my files.  

I ended up showcasing my story as a teacher and my pets.  That is where my passion was.  Teaching was my chosen profession since I was a kid.  I always tell my students stories of Bella, the demon child, and Panther, the "special" cat.  

It was simple to import the pictures into powtoons.  The hard part was to edit it with near perfect timing.  After I had the timing down.  I watched the video and recorded different times where I needed my narrating.  I tried several times to record in order to eliminate ghost static.  I will need to look into how to edit audio to help with the quality.

5301 reflection

One of the major things I realized with the action research is how flexible and beneficial it is for all educators to use.  It is an amazing way to personalize his/her professional development through finding topics of interest and researching about it.  What a great way to be actively involved in a professional development that actually interests you.  From my experience of professional development, it has always been droll and mind-numbing without much information that I felt was relevant to my campus and student demographic.  With this idea, I can tailor my research to actual problems focused for my students and campus.  With my first action research, I have chosen the flipped classroom concept.  This is a topic of interest to me.  I was already planning to attempt a little implementation, but can now use this for research and put data with my implementation.  With this I can see how it affects my students learning.  If the research works the way I hope, I will see some improvement in student learning versus traditional teaching.

Revised Action Research Plan

Here it is.  Let me know what you guys think. :) ~Josh

Action Planning Template
Goal:  How does the flipped classroom concept affect student performance, knowledge acquisition, and productivity?
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
1. Research ideas and possible implementation strategies for flipped classroom concept 2. Research apps, equipment needed for concept 3. Interview and observe teachers using concept	Josh Hadley Valerie Parenica David Henson teacher in Mansfield ISD	September 16, 2013 September 30, 2013	Variety of articles and books outlining concept and implementation Edshelf.com	-Summary of ideas learned from articles and technology researched Interview over experience
3. Outline major topics to implement concept over with other teacher 4. Create a rubric to grade student sample work for different tasks within topics	Josh Hadley Valerie Parenica Josh Hadley Algebra 2 level	October 1, 2013 October 15, 2013 October 20, 2013 October 30, 2013	Curriculum guides & reference materials Technology apps loaded	Survey of Algebra 2 teachers for most needed topics Rubric created
5. Conduct first unit using flipped classroom concept 6. Analyze results from first unit	Josh Hadley Valerie Parenica	January 7, 2014 January 31, 2014	Videos created and uploaded USB drives & CDs loaded with videos Unit plans various materials for lessons	Assessments and student work samples in both classes with and without concept used
7.  Conduct second unit using flipped classroom concept 6. Analyze results from second unit; compare to first set of results 8. Report findings to PLC group; site supervisor and other admin interested.	Josh Hadley Valerie Parenica	March 10, 2014 May 2, 2014	Videos created and uploaded USB drives & CDs loaded with videos Unit plans various materials for lessons	Assessments and student work samples in both classes with and without concept used

My Action Research Plan

Action Planning Template
Goal:  How does the flipped classroom concept affect student performance, knowledge acquisition, and productivity?
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
1. Research ideas and possible implementation strategies for flipped classroom concept 2. Research apps, equipment needed for concept	Josh Hadley Valerie Parenica David Henson	September 16, 2013 September 30, 2013	Variety of articles and books outlining concept and implementation Edshelf.com	-Summary of ideas learned from articles and technology researched Interview over experience
3. Outline major topics to implement concept over with other teacher 4. Create a rubric to grade student sample work for different tasks within topics	Josh Hadley Valerie Parenica Josh Hadley Algebra 2 level	October 1, 2013 October 15, 2013 October 20, 2013 October 30, 2013	Curriculum guides & reference materials Technology apps loaded	Survey of Algebra 2 teachers for most needed topics Rubric created
5. Conduct first unit using flipped classroom concept 6. Analyze results from first unit	Josh Hadley Valerie Parenica	January 7, 2014 January 31, 2014	Videos created and uploaded Unit plans various materials for lessons	Assessments student work samples
7.  Conduct second unit using flipped classroom concept 6. Analyze results from second unit; compare to first set of results 8. Report findings to PLC group; site supervisor and other admin interested.	Josh Hadley Valerie Parenica	March 10, 2014 May 2, 2014	Videos created and uploaded Unit plans various materials for lessons	Assessments student work samples

5301 week 2 reflection

This week, I learned more about action research and what all it can cover for an administrator.  I still go back to say it is important to teachers to use this concept as well in more purposeful, meaningful ways.  I know I will take this idea back to my PLC for areas we want to improve on and look at the facts and data to support what we do.  The key thing I took away from this is that isn't about the numbers.  You need to look more qualitative and into individual students.  

Action Research

What I learned about action research?

As my head is currently on nuclear meltdown with tons of information I have read and pondered this week, action research is something I think most educators do in some form.  It isn't the traditional "sit-n-get" professional developments where some expert is paid to shell out his or her knowledge about best practices.  

Here is what it is: a dynamic way to research and reflect on a question you have in your classroom or school.  It gives you a buy-in to this type of professional development because you choose what you will research and create a plan of action for in your class/school.  As teachers, we do this quite a bit.  We have a question, "How can I do better with...?"  So, we go out and Google information, school and curriculum resources, and talk with colleagues to find what we feel would make the best impact.  Then, we take what we find and implement.  At the end, you reflect back and see how the idea worked.  You may use students' work for analysis or informal observations during the class time, but we analyze how it was effective.  If it worked, then we keep it and maybe try to maintain little changes to keep it working.  If it didn't work, then you go back through the process for another strategy that works.  

Action research is tailored to your class or school.  It creates buy in for all educators involved with the process.  It gives them a unique, personal learning experience where they can share the successes and failures, creating dialogue with other professionals.  

How educational leaders might use blogs?

Blogs are a great way to collaborate with other colleagues. Blogging allows us to share our thoughts and reflections at anytime.  You can share and have your colleagues make comments.  This allows you to receive quick feedback without waiting for an actual meeting where you are all together to share.  You can also collaborate with others more globally.  Now, you can connect with other educators from all countries.  With that wealth of knowledge at a global level, this technology now brings this to us in our own homes.  We do not have to wait for some amazing conference meeting to talk with our fellow colleagues.

Teachers aren't human????

Ok, I get back today into the credit recovery lab I am working in for summer school.  The kids acted like I have been missing for ages upon ages.   They love the melo-drama.

Later in the class, I was helping "bob" with some geometry work on trig functions.  Well, we got the answer wrong on the program...and I swore up and down it was right...because we are "never" wrong.

He redid the lesson and came on the question again.  When I looked at it this time, I realized I made an error.  You thought that was the end of the world for him.  Here was the conversation:

"Bob":  YOU GOT IT WRONG MISTER!
Me:  I looked at it wrong is all.
"Bob":  but you got it wrong.  You're the teacher, you aren't supposed to get it wrong.
Me:  I am only human...I make mistakes sometimes.
"Bob":  you aren't human!
Me: no?  Then what am I?
"Bob":  an intellectual being!

There you go folks...we aren't human and aren't capable of making mistakes!  :-)

Last day of CAMT

Wow, I made it!!!!!!!!!!  3 days of CAMT with the hiking from session to session and camping out in front of the rooms to ensure my entrance.  We, as math teachers, are very serious about our sessions...it's almost primal trying to get in to some.  LOL.


I waited 2 hours in line just for the Dinah Zikes presentation.  Of course it is one of the best note-taking ideas I have seen and so popular.  It was worth the wait.  


Overall, it was a great conference.  I received lots of great ideas and need to stew on them to work them into my lessons for the new school year.  

What I love about summer...

Not only do I enjoy the amazing time off with no kids yelling my name out or complaining about every minute thing, I also love the time to go to workshops shops to rejuvenate my mind and awesome ideas for my class.

As a math teacher, it is essential to keep fresh and original...students bore so easily.  My experience at CAMT has been a good one.  Thanks Mrs H for the wonderful review ideas.  I have bored myself with test reviews. And D with the cool techie ideas, which I flock to like a mouth to a flame.

Each year brings new and difficult struggles...but we must "keep swimming"for the sake of the students.

If you are interested in great review ideas, Mrs H (mathtalesfromthespring.blogspot.com) has some wicked cool stuff.

Now, it's off to the races to scheme away. :-)